Heritage fight in Adelaide's CBD

A proposal to add 77 buildings to Adelaide's local heritage list as been met with mixed opinions. The National Trust says preserving the art deco and Victorian buildings is needed to maintain the city's charm. However, some developers say it's constraining development.

Transcript

But a fight is brewing over the city council's plans to give them greater protection, with developers opposed to an increase in the number of heritage listed properties in the CBD.

In Adelaide, Nicola Gage reports.

NICOLA GAGE: With an ever-increasing population the heart of Adelaide is busier. New buildings are being constructed but there's also a push to protect heritage.

Seventy-seven properties are set to be added to the already 2000-strong heritage list.

It includes a range of pubs, churches, houses and shops. And it's a move which has divided opinions.

NATHAN PAINE: We need to stop this trench warfare approach where on one side we have a group of people who want to list everything, put a glass box over Adelaide, make it into a museum that we can all look at, versus other people who would say just demolish everything.

NICOLA GAGE: Nathan Paine is the South Australian director of the Property Council of Australia.

He's questioned whether some buildings proposed to be listed are worthy, and says it's constraining development.

NATHAN PAINE: Some of them certainly I would say definitely need to be kept but I would have independent experts review every single listing, look at their position within I guess the streetscape, look at their position within what's happening in buildings around them and really make a value judgment as to whether they're necessary, whether we need to keep them for the future or whether we need to move on.

NICOLA GAGE: What do you think we're seeing at the moment?

NATHAN PAINE: I think we're seeing a movement which says we should list everything that's old. I think we're seeing a movement which says we don't care whether we're going to impact on your investment or your property.

I think we're seeing a movement from really probably a lot of ideologues who just want to list for the sake of listing, protect for the sake of protecting.

NICOLA GAGE: David Beaumont is from the National Trust of South Australia.

DAVID BEAUMONT: I think that's simplistic. There is a set of criteria for meeting the local heritage listing and the buildings that are on that list meet the criteria in one way or another.

NICOLA GAGE: What is the importance and significance of keeping some of these buildings for the future of Adelaide and for its history?

DAVID BEAUMONT: I think we're just here at a point in time in 2012 and we're currently custodians and guardians of buildings and in many cases they're not asked to demolish.

NICOLA GAGE: The striking Victorian buildings and art deco designs of Adelaide's CBD are major drawcards for tourists.

Adelaide City Council Acting Lord Mayor David Plumridge says the council took that into account when outlining what properties to be heritage listed.

DAVID PLUMRIDGE: Those 77 are the absolute basic blocks we think are what have to be kept. There's plenty more out there that should be but for the time being it's the 77 that we're pushing for.

In terms of not developing as fast as other cities, I know from my own experience that there are many multi-story buildings approved over the last three or four years approved for development in the city which are just not being built.

There's a tremendous amount of potential out there already approved, not built. So where's this argument that we're stopping growth in the city? It's just a nonsense.

NICOLA GAGE: The State Government will make a decision on the proposed heritage listings early in the new year.